Here’s a note from people who took a bunch of donations to NC:
Helene Follow Up—
This will be a long post. For those that just read a line er two, let me start with the thanks, because it is of utmost importance.
Our community stepped up in a way that still has me in awe, in shock, and so very proud. The people of NC told me many times to thank the people of Jacksonville. So from them “Thank You Jacksonville!”
I sent out a FB post on Monday night at 9pm. I was in GA. My buddy Keith Faver texted and said “we gotta go help. We can’t just go to work tomorrow while those people need help.” Jay Reister, Gordon Gruhn, who were also on the text, all agreed that we had to go.
Oddly enough I was put in charge of the social media request for donations. I sent the post at 9 pm. At 9:01 I got a call from Dale “SHAZAAM” Murray of Murray Dodge. He said he was sending me $5,000.00 to cover our expenses. He’s a great dude with a huge heart.
Jeff, who gets to work at about 4:30 am every day at Angie’s texted at 5 am on Tuesday morn. “Ed, there is a stack of toilet paper and bottled water in front of the door here?” The donations had begun arriving. They would not stop coming for another 12 hours! Midday, from 10 am to 5 pm there was always a car unloading, sometimes the line of cars waiting was ten deep! We called in two extra employees to just help unload cars.
I can only guess but I think we had over 30,000 lbs of supplies dropped off. The parking lot was busting! Scott Hulihan saw the piles growing and donated trailers to fill. At around noon Gordon showed up with a 500 gallon tank of diesel donated by Gate petroleum. It weighed around 4,500 lbs including the tank.
Don Burkhardt, a guy I had never met before showed up around 4 pm and said “I am a commercial truck driver. I have a thirty foot box truck sitting idle. Let’s start loading it and I’m going with you.”
After it was loaded Don was driving the truck away and he felt it was overloaded and took it to the truck scales. Sure enough he called me and said “Ed we are 4,000 lbs overweight.” So he drove back to Angie’s to unload a ton er two. This would become a theme for the trip. We had so much stuff.
We had a 7 truck convoy on the road early Wednesday. Chris Sanchez had the first blow out just outside of Jax. We blew 4 trailer tires and busted some u bolts on overloaded trailers. But we overcame. Steve Usina, also another guy I had never met volunteered to drag his cargo trailer with us. He had a monster floor jack that made tire changes easy. Fortunately we had purchased 5 spare tires before starting out. (Thanks Gordon Gruhn) Bryan Croft also showed up with a cargo trailer and three strong backs to load and make the trip with us.
We had logistics pretty much worked out before we left but things were changing quickly. Lots of info coming in, but most of it I would say was misinformation. We received emails and texts that said there was no way to get supplies into Ashville. Our contacts in Ashville said please try anyway. Glad we did. We got two trucks into Ashville Wednesday night. Ben Easton, Luke Tipton, and Steve Usina with his friend Dan met our drop contacts and unloaded.
There was a group from Jax, Treemendous BBQ and Catering, in Ashville giving us info. They had cooked 1,000 meals that day. They would continue doing this for the next four days. Great Job!!!
Five trucks went in to Marshall NC which was our destination.
Our most important focus was to insure that all the supplies that were so generously donated, got into the hands of those who needed them. We scouted drop zones Thursday morn to talk to locals, find out what areas were accessible and find out where we should go.
Everywhere we went we told people we had driven from Jax FL. They looked perplexed. “You drove all this stuff from Florida?” Tears would immediately well up, hugs would be exchanged, long strong hugs, and thank you's would gush forth. They were very, very appreciative.
Most of our supplies ended up at the Madison County CoOp Extension. It’s a fair ground type place with a large warehouse. It was maned by locals. Very well run. Supplies were coming in and going out.
While we were there I had to walk away from the building to collect my thoughts. I was emotionally drained. Bubba Brown who was my sidekick on this trip related this story that I witnessed but did not understand as I was a distance away.
Bubba was helping unload trucks. This tall woman drove up in a dusty car, got out, and was walking toward the supply area, she was a bit disheveled. A minute later another dusty car drove up and got in the supply pick up line. The woman in that car got out and yelled at the other woman. They ran towards each other and embraced, taking each other to the ground as if they had not seen each other in years. Bubba went to talk to them.
They were sisters who had not talked to each other since the storm started, five days prior. Each thought the other might have perished knowing where their houses were located along the river. They found each other at the supply line. I don’t know what all they lost, but my gut says it was a lot, noting the emotion they showed at finding each other.
That same morning Keith and his wife Heather took a truck of supplies into Hot Springs. Hot Springs was in bad shape. There was a make shift aid area. It was maned again by locals, two of which greeted Keith as he pulled up. These two guys were middle aged, strong mountain men. They were survivor types. They had probably never taken a hand out in their lives nor ever cried as adult men.
Keith said to them “I have supplies for you.”
He got out and opened up the back of the truck which had food, water, baby formula, diapers, cleaning supplies. The men looked at the load and asked Keith “what can we take?”
“It’s all yours” Keith replied. The two mountain men could not talk. They were overcome with emotion. They trembled and cried, Keith and Heather did the same as the truck was unloaded.
Jax people, all of your donations have made and will continue to make an impact in NC.
On Thursday night after all trucks and trailers were unloaded we met back at Keith’s house in Marshall. His property was mostly unscathed but with no electricity. The mountains were very dark at night, very dark. We grilled out that night after having subsisted on cold Angie’s Subs fer a few days. All around the table cried a few times as stories of the day were exchanged. We were physically tired, mentally exhausted, and emotionally drained. I have never been so emotionally drained.
We drove back Friday. It was a long 11 hour drive. I saw storm damage nearly the entire way home.
Some will ask me about FEMA or disaster relief. I will not go into that here, don’t ask.
This is a post to let those who donated know that their efforts were greatly appreciated and the supplies got into the hands that needed them. I wanted to let you know what transpired. This is a short version of three long days. Clean up and rebuilding will take years.
Thanks to all, especially Murray Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Hulihan Territory Gate Petroleum Company Ponte Vedra Inn & Club and Liberty Marine Services
Our crew: Keith Faver, Heather Faver, Steve Usina and Dan, Bubba Brown, Gordon Gruhn, Bryan Croft, Chance Croft, Don Burkhardt, Paul Briggs, Chris Sanchez, Luke Tipton, Ben Easton, Mathis Toal, Arthur Portacelli and myself. Cody Dubin was our man in Jax, thanks Bro, huge help.
Consider the following and write your state reps (both parties) asap:
The aftermath of Hurricane Helene left up to 150 affected counties in various states of damage in the disaster zone. This is a federal emergency of epic proportions and relief is already a week plus behind. Reports of 1,000 confirmed dead and it’s likely to reach 2,000+. Time is of the essence! Temperatures are dropping and near freezing conditions will be reached soon. Americans affected by this disaster are homeless!
1) Remember, it’s our money that’s going toward FEMA, not the government’s.
2) Speaker Johnson and congress can quickly reallocate funds with one simple vote for Hurricane Helena relief efforts. We’re in a new fiscal year! Help Americans first!
3) The President and Congress have the full authority to call out the National Command Authority to mobilize along with the active duty division (82nd Airborne can literally be there in a few hours), federalize the National Guard (a division’s worth of capabilities comprising 15,000-20,000 personnel) for logistics, a aviation assets, communications, clothing, mobile kitchen trailers, water purification, etc. to mobilize in order to help the Hurricane victims.
4) Our government has disaster recovery response funds. Only 1,000 have been deployed thus far; 75,000 were quickly deployed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina!
What in earth are you people doing, because it is clear to many what you’re not doing?!
I’m trying to convince my Florida friend (grew up with him, in Jacksonville beach) that weather modification is real and is being weaponized against the people. He doesn’t believe me. But last night he said if the current storm heads into the mountains and causes another disaster he will reconsider weather machines😱
Here’s a note from people who took a bunch of donations to NC:
Helene Follow Up—
This will be a long post. For those that just read a line er two, let me start with the thanks, because it is of utmost importance.
Our community stepped up in a way that still has me in awe, in shock, and so very proud. The people of NC told me many times to thank the people of Jacksonville. So from them “Thank You Jacksonville!”
I sent out a FB post on Monday night at 9pm. I was in GA. My buddy Keith Faver texted and said “we gotta go help. We can’t just go to work tomorrow while those people need help.” Jay Reister, Gordon Gruhn, who were also on the text, all agreed that we had to go.
Oddly enough I was put in charge of the social media request for donations. I sent the post at 9 pm. At 9:01 I got a call from Dale “SHAZAAM” Murray of Murray Dodge. He said he was sending me $5,000.00 to cover our expenses. He’s a great dude with a huge heart.
Jeff, who gets to work at about 4:30 am every day at Angie’s texted at 5 am on Tuesday morn. “Ed, there is a stack of toilet paper and bottled water in front of the door here?” The donations had begun arriving. They would not stop coming for another 12 hours! Midday, from 10 am to 5 pm there was always a car unloading, sometimes the line of cars waiting was ten deep! We called in two extra employees to just help unload cars.
I can only guess but I think we had over 30,000 lbs of supplies dropped off. The parking lot was busting! Scott Hulihan saw the piles growing and donated trailers to fill. At around noon Gordon showed up with a 500 gallon tank of diesel donated by Gate petroleum. It weighed around 4,500 lbs including the tank.
Don Burkhardt, a guy I had never met before showed up around 4 pm and said “I am a commercial truck driver. I have a thirty foot box truck sitting idle. Let’s start loading it and I’m going with you.”
After it was loaded Don was driving the truck away and he felt it was overloaded and took it to the truck scales. Sure enough he called me and said “Ed we are 4,000 lbs overweight.” So he drove back to Angie’s to unload a ton er two. This would become a theme for the trip. We had so much stuff.
We had a 7 truck convoy on the road early Wednesday. Chris Sanchez had the first blow out just outside of Jax. We blew 4 trailer tires and busted some u bolts on overloaded trailers. But we overcame. Steve Usina, also another guy I had never met volunteered to drag his cargo trailer with us. He had a monster floor jack that made tire changes easy. Fortunately we had purchased 5 spare tires before starting out. (Thanks Gordon Gruhn) Bryan Croft also showed up with a cargo trailer and three strong backs to load and make the trip with us.
We had logistics pretty much worked out before we left but things were changing quickly. Lots of info coming in, but most of it I would say was misinformation. We received emails and texts that said there was no way to get supplies into Ashville. Our contacts in Ashville said please try anyway. Glad we did. We got two trucks into Ashville Wednesday night. Ben Easton, Luke Tipton, and Steve Usina with his friend Dan met our drop contacts and unloaded.
There was a group from Jax, Treemendous BBQ and Catering, in Ashville giving us info. They had cooked 1,000 meals that day. They would continue doing this for the next four days. Great Job!!!
Five trucks went in to Marshall NC which was our destination.
Our most important focus was to insure that all the supplies that were so generously donated, got into the hands of those who needed them. We scouted drop zones Thursday morn to talk to locals, find out what areas were accessible and find out where we should go.
Everywhere we went we told people we had driven from Jax FL. They looked perplexed. “You drove all this stuff from Florida?” Tears would immediately well up, hugs would be exchanged, long strong hugs, and thank you's would gush forth. They were very, very appreciative.
Most of our supplies ended up at the Madison County CoOp Extension. It’s a fair ground type place with a large warehouse. It was maned by locals. Very well run. Supplies were coming in and going out.
While we were there I had to walk away from the building to collect my thoughts. I was emotionally drained. Bubba Brown who was my sidekick on this trip related this story that I witnessed but did not understand as I was a distance away.
Bubba was helping unload trucks. This tall woman drove up in a dusty car, got out, and was walking toward the supply area, she was a bit disheveled. A minute later another dusty car drove up and got in the supply pick up line. The woman in that car got out and yelled at the other woman. They ran towards each other and embraced, taking each other to the ground as if they had not seen each other in years. Bubba went to talk to them.
They were sisters who had not talked to each other since the storm started, five days prior. Each thought the other might have perished knowing where their houses were located along the river. They found each other at the supply line. I don’t know what all they lost, but my gut says it was a lot, noting the emotion they showed at finding each other.
That same morning Keith and his wife Heather took a truck of supplies into Hot Springs. Hot Springs was in bad shape. There was a make shift aid area. It was maned again by locals, two of which greeted Keith as he pulled up. These two guys were middle aged, strong mountain men. They were survivor types. They had probably never taken a hand out in their lives nor ever cried as adult men.
Keith said to them “I have supplies for you.”
He got out and opened up the back of the truck which had food, water, baby formula, diapers, cleaning supplies. The men looked at the load and asked Keith “what can we take?”
“It’s all yours” Keith replied. The two mountain men could not talk. They were overcome with emotion. They trembled and cried, Keith and Heather did the same as the truck was unloaded.
Jax people, all of your donations have made and will continue to make an impact in NC.
On Thursday night after all trucks and trailers were unloaded we met back at Keith’s house in Marshall. His property was mostly unscathed but with no electricity. The mountains were very dark at night, very dark. We grilled out that night after having subsisted on cold Angie’s Subs fer a few days. All around the table cried a few times as stories of the day were exchanged. We were physically tired, mentally exhausted, and emotionally drained. I have never been so emotionally drained.
We drove back Friday. It was a long 11 hour drive. I saw storm damage nearly the entire way home.
Some will ask me about FEMA or disaster relief. I will not go into that here, don’t ask.
This is a post to let those who donated know that their efforts were greatly appreciated and the supplies got into the hands that needed them. I wanted to let you know what transpired. This is a short version of three long days. Clean up and rebuilding will take years.
Thanks to all, especially Murray Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Hulihan Territory Gate Petroleum Company Ponte Vedra Inn & Club and Liberty Marine Services
Our crew: Keith Faver, Heather Faver, Steve Usina and Dan, Bubba Brown, Gordon Gruhn, Bryan Croft, Chance Croft, Don Burkhardt, Paul Briggs, Chris Sanchez, Luke Tipton, Ben Easton, Mathis Toal, Arthur Portacelli and myself. Cody Dubin was our man in Jax, thanks Bro, huge help.
Another storm comin. Be prepared!!
Love Ed
Consider the following and write your state reps (both parties) asap:
The aftermath of Hurricane Helene left up to 150 affected counties in various states of damage in the disaster zone. This is a federal emergency of epic proportions and relief is already a week plus behind. Reports of 1,000 confirmed dead and it’s likely to reach 2,000+. Time is of the essence! Temperatures are dropping and near freezing conditions will be reached soon. Americans affected by this disaster are homeless!
1) Remember, it’s our money that’s going toward FEMA, not the government’s.
2) Speaker Johnson and congress can quickly reallocate funds with one simple vote for Hurricane Helena relief efforts. We’re in a new fiscal year! Help Americans first!
3) The President and Congress have the full authority to call out the National Command Authority to mobilize along with the active duty division (82nd Airborne can literally be there in a few hours), federalize the National Guard (a division’s worth of capabilities comprising 15,000-20,000 personnel) for logistics, a aviation assets, communications, clothing, mobile kitchen trailers, water purification, etc. to mobilize in order to help the Hurricane victims.
4) Our government has disaster recovery response funds. Only 1,000 have been deployed thus far; 75,000 were quickly deployed in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina!
What in earth are you people doing, because it is clear to many what you’re not doing?!
Eric, do you live close to the disaster?
I’m trying to convince my Florida friend (grew up with him, in Jacksonville beach) that weather modification is real and is being weaponized against the people. He doesn’t believe me. But last night he said if the current storm heads into the mountains and causes another disaster he will reconsider weather machines😱
Ugh!
We saw very little damage here, 6 hour power outage, and the internet was down for 3ish days.
Did an unmarked blackhawk helicopter trash any of your donation sites?
https://rumble.com/embed/v5fm77o/
Transponder was off, police have no flight plan, there was no lz and the occupants were masked.
https://wickedtruths.org/en/hurricane-helene-engineered-weather-fema-lithium-mines-dams
Manipulation of hurricanes by doppler radar:
https://rumble.com/v5hyssi-weather-wars-fema-and-equitable-mass-murder.html